


The Crash

by TiyeTiye



Series: Ivar and Lisbet - 1920's AU [5]
Category: Keep Your Silence, Vikings - Fandom
Genre: 1920's AU, F/M, Great Depression, Harlem, Ivar gets to be a white knight, Keep Your Silence x Vengeance is Mine crossover, Little scamps being helpful, New York City, Pre-teen Superheroes, Prohibition AU, Stockmarket Crash, bootlegger au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-19
Updated: 2018-04-19
Packaged: 2019-04-24 22:42:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,451
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14365239
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TiyeTiye/pseuds/TiyeTiye
Summary: The stock market crashes and Lisbet braces for everything to come tumbling down.





	The Crash

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Keep Your Silence](https://archiveofourown.org/works/10732503) by [livebynight](https://archiveofourown.org/users/livebynight/pseuds/livebynight). 



> It occurred to me this past New Years Eve while I was very tired and slightly drunk that while "Vengeance is Mine" takes place partially in Manhattan in the summer of 1928, Bucky Barnes and Steve Rogers would have been pre-teens living in Brooklyn, meaning it would be possible for them to cross paths with 1920′s Ivar and Lisbet. So now Steve and Bucky come hang out with Lisbet a few times at week while she’s at work at the drugstore. She usually gives them a bit of candy and they help out a bit around the store, run errands, or make deliveries. Ivar’s opinion of them ranges from tolerance to grudging respect.

It had started out as just another normal Thursday. Lisbet had opened the drugstore at the correct time early that morning, and helped a few customers, but as the day wore on and more and more news trickled uptown out of Wall Street, the flow of people on the streets and through the shop doors slowed to a trickle and then dried out. The streets were nearly empty now, save for the odd small groups of men or women hurrying to somewhere, heads bowed, eyes furtive, coats clutched tightly in tense hands. It was always groups, Lisbet noticed - hardly anyone was out alone.

She didn’t know where they thought they were going. All of the banks in the neighborhood had been out of money for hours - she’d seen the panicked mobs running down the street. Thought about joining them. Thought about going home. Tried using the phone in the office that Ivar had insisted on installing to call him, but couldn’t get through - not to him or any of his brothers. She’d been thinking about braving the streets, locking up and trying for home when the bell above the door rang and the boys had crept in. Bucky was trying and failing to mask his fear and confusion, and Steve looked paler than usual. Lisbet didn’t have the heart to tell them to go home. Instead she gave them each a piece of peppermint candy from the enormous jar behind the counter and asked them to help her clean the store.

That had been nearly two hours ago, and now Lisbet was cleaning the same shelf behind the counter for the third time, glass bottles tinkling together in her hands that just wouldn’t stay steady. They’d gotten this shipment of shampoo in just last week, and Lisbet had been excited to try it, but now she couldn’t focus enough to even make out the letters. Her thoughts kept drifting southward, to Wall Street, to the rumors of men jumping to their deaths, swallowing their pistols, choosing to end it all rather than pick up the pieces of their world which had so unexpectedly shattered. What were they going to do? She glanced towards the front door and the huge windows on either side, where Bucky had balanced Steve on his shoulders so the smaller boy could reach up and scrub the high corners that Lisbet and Sofia could never reach. What was going to become of them? What was going to become of  _her_? Would Pops lose his job at the factory? Would Ivar lose the drugstore and Lisbet her job there? Her family was barely getting by each month, with just enough money to cover all of their bills - had they already lost everything today and just not realized it yet?  

She didn’t hear the roar of the engine outside, the tinkling of the bell over the door, or the  _plunk_  of crutches on the wooden floorboards.

“ _Hey! You_!” Lisbet heard, followed by a loud  _whump_  and groaning from the front of the store. She finally collected herself and turned to see Steve and Bucky in a tangle of limbs on the floor, picking themselves up and dusting off their coats.

“You two get out of here! Go on now!” Ivar said, scowling at the two boys. “Ought to be  _ashamed_  of yourselves - galavanting around a place of business on a day like today. Thought you two had more sense than that. Go on home now to your Mamas and make sure they’re alright.”

“We wasn’t  _galavanting_ anywhere, Ivar.” Bucky said as Steve nodded along behind him. “We came to check on Miss Lisbet!”

“Yeah, we came to make sure she was okay!” Steve pipped in.

“Hmmm…” Ivar said - eyes narrowing and growling deep in his throat. “Be that as it may, I thought I told you two to  _get_. I’ll take care of Miss Lisbet.” He pointed towards the door. “Home.  ** _Now_**.”  

Bucky rolled his eyes and gestured to Steve. “Yes  _sir,”_ he drawled.

“Wait, hang on a minute,” Ivar called and the Bucky paused, hand on the doorknob. Ivar pulled a gold coin out of his pocket and tossed it towards the boys, Bucky snatching it out of the air. “Take a cab home,” Ivar said, “It’ll get you there quicker.”

“Yes sir!” grinned Bucky and the boys shot out the door, dashing away towards the corner and a better chance at a cab. Ivar watched them go for a moment before finally turning to Lisbet.

“You alright Chickadee?” he asked softly, picking his way across the floor to where Lisbet stood, swaying on her feet.

Lisbet had to think about it, bringing her shaking hands up to curl around the lapels of Ivar’s jacket. “I don’t know.”

Ivar cupped her cheek, brows furrowed in concern. “What do you mean?”

Lisbet’s voice came out in a frightened whisper. “What’s  _happening_ Ivar? Nobody knows! Nobody can tell me! I tried to call you on that phone you bought, but I couldn’t get through! Are you going to lose the store? Is your family going to lose your  _company_? What are we going to  _do_?! If I lose my job or Pops loses his we’ll lose our apartment and then—”

Ivar wrapped his arms around Lisbet and pulled her tightly against him, leaning back against the counter, crushing her to his chest, and cutting off her frightened words.

“Shhhh, Lisbet. Hush now,” Ivar murmured against her hair. “I’ve got you.”

He held her tightly, softly kissing her temple and resting his cheek against her hair, feeling Lisbet take several long, deep, shuddering breaths, and slowly her shaking subsided. Once she seemed a bit calmer, Ivar released her and gently tilted her face up until he could look her in the eye.

“Better now?” he asked. Lisbet gulped but nodded.

“Good,” Ivar said, voice soft but full of conviction. “Now listen to me Lisbet -  _nothing_  is going to happen to you. Alright? Nothing at all. I won’t let it. You are  _not_  going to lose your job. You are  _not_  going to lose your apartment. I am  _not_  going to lose my company. Whatever happens tomorrow,  _nothing_  is going to happen to us. You understand?  _You_  are going to keep taking your classes and become the  _best damn nurse_  in this city, because Lord knows I’m going to do something stupid and hurt myself again and need you to come help me.”

Lisbet gave a weak little smile at that one and Ivar grinned down at her.

“There, see?” he said, rubbing her shoulders. “That’s better. That’s my girl.”

Lisbet squeezed his hand, stretching up on her tiptoes to give him a kiss. “Thank you.”

Ivar smiled against her lips. “You’re welcome. Come on. Let me take you home.”

—————————————————————————————————————————

Ivar waited across the street until Lisbet waved down to him from her bedroom window. He waved back up at her, gunned his bike, and heading back down 7th Avenue towards his family’s townhouse. As he drove, he mulled an idea over in his mind, weaving in and out of traffic and ignoring the angry honks that rose up behind him. By the time he made it home and back to his enormous work desk he’d made up his mind. A quick check over the company ledgers confirmed it - he had the money. He could do it.

“Hvitserk!” Ivar bellowed over his shoulder. “Hvitserk! Get in here!”

“Not now!” came his brothers angry reply from somewhere down the hall.

“I said  _get in here!_ ”

“What?! What?!  _What_?!” Hvitserk said as he angrily strode through Ivar’s door. “Things have been a bit  _busy_  today, little brother, in case you haven’t  _noticed_.”

“Oh believe me, I  _noticed_.” Ivar said. He handed his brother a slip of paper with an address written on it. “Call the lawyers. I want to buy this property up in Harlem. I’m sure they’ll be quite happy to be finding some work today.”

Hvitserk scanned the address and his eyebrows rose. “Isn’t this Lisbet’s address?”

Ivar didn’t meet his eyes, instead turning to scan a newspaper one of the staff had left on his desk. “Yes, it is,” he replied.

“You want to buy her building?”

“That was the idea.”

“And she’s alright with that?”

Ivar met his brothers eyes, a hint of ice creeping into his gaze. “She doesn’t know, Hvitserk. She doesn’t  _need_  to know. We buy it with one of the dummy companies and keep our names off the forms. Understand?”

Hvitserk still looked skeptical. “Are you really sure about this? We’re going to be landlords now?”

Ivar scowled up at his big brother. “I made a promise, Hvitserk. Now, if you please? _ **Call. The. Damn. Lawyers.**_ ”


End file.
